Thursday, February 25, 2010

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the networks are boldly going where no network has gone before, ordering primarily dramas about cops:

Among broadcast dramas in development, Big Four networks have ordered a whopping 22 pilots about law enforcement agencies and individuals including the CIA, FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, U.S. Marshals Service, bounty hunters, police psychologists and rank-and-file cops.

In an exciting twist, "several of the pilots feature characters with special abilities. In ABC's "Body of Evidence," for example, the medical examiner protagonist is a former neurosurgeon, and an untitled CBS project spotlights a New York police detective who can remember everything she's ever learned."

There are also five legal dramas and two new medical dramas.

What's missing? Primarily serials. After all, who really wants to watch a show where not only the characters but the stories develop from episode to episode?

In a similar show of bravery, networks greenlit some half hours about cops and lawyers.

For the run down on all these shockingly original new shows, check out The Live Feed.

So... what does this mean for the shows you're developing? It's hard to say. A huge overbuy of cop shows could lead to a disastrous year for all the cop shows that get picked up, leading to a loss of appetite for cop shows.

A boy can dream, can't he?

More realistically, if you're trying to get a show on the air, and you can figure out a cop show that is slightly different in some way, mazel tov. If you're trying to sell a serial in this environment, on the other hand, good luck, buddy. Even if you are Joss Whedon. (That is why, I assume, DOLLHOUSE started so episodic, and only later got serial.)